Brazil offers to help Cuba develop small businesses

[Judi Lynn]

Brazil offers to help Cuba develop small businesses
By Walter Brandimarte, Reuters

Last Updated: September 21, 2010 6:01am

NEW YORK - Brazil is ready to help Cuba develop small and mid-sized businesses in order to support the economic development of the communist island, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Monday.

Cooperation in the business area was among the topics discussed by Amorim with Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana Saturday, the minister told reporters in New York, where he will attend the United Nation's General Assembly this week.

Amorim said Brazil has extensive experience in fostering entrepreneurship to develop its formal economy.

Cuba, he added, will need that expertise to help its private sector absorb the 500,000 state workers which the government plans to lay off by March, as part of a strategy to make its economy more efficient.

"It doesn't pay off for Cuba to move 500,000 workers out of the public sector if they fall into the informal economy," said Amorim. He said the layoffs are a "very courageous" move by Havana.

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